Image displays such as liquid crystal displays for use in televisions, personal computers and the like use optical films such as polarizing plates. As the size of televisions and the like has grown in recent years, large-area optical films have been demanded. For the manufacture of large-area optical films, corresponding large manufacturing facilities are necessary, and a difficulty in handling for packing is associated with transportation, which requires high cost. In order to install such large manufacturing facilities, a large place is required. Thus, there has been proposed a technique in which a plurality of liquid crystal displays are arranged with their end faces butted against one another to form a large-sized liquid crystal display.
Liquid crystal displays of televisions, personal computers and the like produce a display by transmitting and blocking (absorbing) light from their back side based on the function of optical films such as polarizing plates. Thus, butting of the end faces of liquid crystal displays has a problem in which the butted portion can cause light leakage to produce a light line on the front face of liquid crystal displays. Against this problem, there is disclosed a technique in which as shown in FIG. 21, a film F is attached onto polarizing plates (optical films A) at the butted portion of liquid crystal displays (on the portion between the butted end faces x) to prevent light leakage (see Patent Literature 1 below). However, the technique of Patent Literature 1 has a problem in which the film attached to the surface of the polarizing plates can degrade the surface appearance of liquid crystal displays, although light leakage can be prevented.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 05-88163